


come put your lips on mine and shut me up

by immahill



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: F/F, Getting Together, Janitor's Closet Shenanigans, except trina is in a longer-ish scene, the other characters besides tori and jade show up for like two seconds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immahill/pseuds/immahill
Summary: “Jade totally likes you.”“What?”“Yeah, so now you can stop yearning over her from afar and do something about it. She likes you, you like her–”“What?”-or-Tori is not-so-subtly pining after Jade. Trina tries to slap some sense into her, but sometimes a useless lesbian needs confirmation directly from her crush in order to get her damn ass in gear.
Relationships: Tori Vega/Jade West
Comments: 14
Kudos: 444





	come put your lips on mine and shut me up

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this work is from "Talk Too Much" by COIN.

The more Tori thought about it, the more confused she got. She couldn’t wrap her head around it. It made absolutely no sense. At all. Whatsoever. 

Everyone had warned her not to get too close in proximity to Jade, to never invade her personal space. Everyone, including Jade herself, had stressed that _no one_ was _ever_ allowed to touch her. Besides Beck and Cat (and even that was only sometimes), no one else was allowed to get near Jade unless absolutely necessary.

No one except...herself. And Tori was pretty sure that she wasn’t just imagining or making up things. (It was possible, though, considering she had taken a liking to Jade that was far more than just platonic. But she was _not_ going to entertain that train of thought right now.) There had definitely been times she’d touched Jade with no repercussions – besides, sometimes, a sarcastic remark – with witnesses to prove it. Like, actually touched. Skin to skin contact. For prolonged amounts of time. On multiple occasions. 

It was pretty crazy, in Tori’s mind.

For one, there was the time she and Jade had hugged at the end of her Well Wishes play. And the other time when Jade hadn’t snapped at Tori for putting a hand to her forehead and face. (She still didn’t understand how Jade hadn’t sweat at all that day. It had been so unbelievably hot.) Or all the times she’d grabbed Jade’s wrist – and the times Jade had grabbed her wrist – to drag her to the janitor’s closet. All the other moments; interlocking their hands after Tori had performed at Karaoke Dokie, jumping on her back at that party at Keenan Thompson’s house, Jade hugging her before Yerba (but then wrestling her to the ground, so maybe that didn’t count). 

Though they were just as invigorating, Tori didn’t count the moments during plays or acting exercises where she’d gotten close to Jade. She assumed Jade allowed that out of necessity rather than actual preference. It was required if you wanted to get a good grade, after all.

Even besides those main occasions, Tori noticed there were small moments, too. She didn’t think much of it at first, she _was_ just a friendly, touchy person in general. But there were times when she’d poke or shove Jade teasingly, or when she’d lay a hand on her shoulder or arm when talking to her or just to get her attention, and Tori realized if any other person did any of those things, their fingers would probably get snipped off.

No one else had ever even tried. Which made sense, she supposed. André was just a polite guy who never got in anyone’s face unless it was clear they wouldn’t mind, Robbie was way too scared, and Trina had never made the mistake of touching Jade again after she’d been warned not to the first time. Anyone else that had ever come across Jade generally had enough common sense to avoid getting in her way.

Well, except those guys at Nozu during Tori and Jade’s fake date. They had been pretty insistent on invading their space all night long.

It’s not that Tori really cared about the specifics on who Jade allowed to touch her and why, she just wondered...why _her_? There was no one else at Hollywood Arts that Jade hated more than Tori. This was a fact that might as well have been carved into the school's walls and written into the rulebook, with practically everyone and their mother knowing it. The singer might’ve gone as far to say she’s one of the people Jade hated most in her _life_ , potentially beat out only by Jade’s own parents. (Which hurt a little, because even though Tori had accepted that her feelings would never be reciprocated, Jade’s parents seemed kind of horrible. She wasn’t _that_ bad, was she?)

She didn’t mind Jade allowing her to get close and touch her, and she wasn’t judging, but she couldn’t deny that she was curious.

And, okay, maybe she kind of liked touching Jade. It kind of felt like...an honor, or something, that Jade had, for some reason or other, deemed her worthy. In a way, it was validating that the girl who had such strict rules on personal space ( _cough,_ her crush, _cough_ ) allowed Tori to invade it. 

Not that Tori had ever gone around bragging about it like it was an award. Even she wasn’t that weird. It was just unexpected, is all.

She tried asking Cat about it first. The redhead just giggled and said, “Isn’t it obvious?” before skipping off to who knows where. To Tori, no, it was not obvious. That was why she’d asked in the first place. Cat’s answer just confused her more, if anything.

She went to Beck after that. “Jade doesn’t hate you as much as you think she does. Or as much as _she_ thinks she does, to be honest,” he said, muttering the last sentence as if talking more to himself than Tori. It was more than Cat had offered, but it was still a cryptic answer that didn’t help Tori in the slightest.

She brainstormed and theorized with André and Robbie as a last resort. Neither were particularly close with Jade, but Jade never really insulted André and she tolerated Robbie to a certain extent. They’d both known Jade longer than Tori did, so it couldn’t hurt. 

Sadly, the three of them couldn’t really come up with much besides Rex speculating that, “Maybe the witch has finally lost her mind,” which Tori thought (and hoped) wasn’t the case.

Surprisingly – or maybe not so surprisingly – the answer that was so out there that it actually made the most sense came from Trina, of all people.

“What’s got you thinking so hard over there?” Trina asked, jolting Tori out of her reverie, almost making her fling her bowl of mac and cheese across the room.

“Um, nothing.” Tori blinked down at the cheesy pasta, debating if she was actually going to eat it or not.

“Oh come on, you can tell me. I’m your dear older sister, after all,” Trina coerced as she sank into the seat opposite Tori at their dining table.

“It’s not that important, Treen.” She tentatively brought a spoonful to her mouth, wondering if it’d gone cold in the time she’d been stuck in her thoughts, when she’d been eating mechanically and not registering if what she was putting in her mouth was actually any good.

As helpful as her sporadically caring sister could be, Tori wasn’t so sure she should talk to her about this. Trina was the all-knowing gossip queen and, should she choose to, she could definitely twist this into some fabricated, asinine story that would spread like wildfire, somehow getting everyone to believe it.

“Well it must be, because you’ve been fretting over something for _days_.”

“I haven’t been _fretting_ ,” Tori denied, swallowing down another bite of food.

“Whatever. Something is up and you need to tell me.”

The younger Vega looked suspiciously at the elder. “You...noticed something was up? Since when do you do that?” Was it possible that Trina finally cared about other people's feelings?

“Since your weird _aura_ began throwing my _chakra_ off balance!”

Tori sighed. Nope, of course not. Was Trina even supposed to use chakra and aura together like that? Tori doubted it.

“And if you don’t tell me or _someone_ , you’ll keep being all weird and I can’t have that negative energy surrounding me. It could cause intensified worry or anxiety, and I do _not_ want wrinkles or frown lines any time soon, so–”

“Will you shut up if I tell you?” Tori interjected, already tired of Trina’s rambling. She had her own jumble of thoughts swirling around in her head, she didn’t need anyone else’s.

“Sure.”

Tori raised a dubious eyebrow at how easily her sister relented. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” she muttered, standing up to put her now empty bowl in the sink.

“No! No, I swear I’ll hush and listen, c’mon.” Trina scrambled up to stop Tori in her path.

“Why do you care so much?” Tori’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. The Trina she was used to would’ve given up by now – that is, if she even noticed or decided to mention Tori’s unusual mood in the first place. “You want something out of this, don’t you? I’m not telling you if you’re just going to use it to create drama.”

“Whaaat? Why would I _ever_ –” Trina tried feigning innocence. It wasn’t working. She sighed, dropping her shoulders and rolling her eyes as she let the unconvincing act diminish. “I won’t do anything if you give me twenty bucks.”  
  
“Or I could just not tell you at all!” Tori's voice dripped with sarcastic chipperness as she stepped around Trina and set her bowl into the kitchen sink.

“You know I’ll find out eventually. You wouldn’t even bother hiding it if it’s ‘not that important,’” she persuaded, sarcastically using Tori’s own words.

Well. Trina had her there. “I just genuinely don’t think you’d care about it. Or even notice it in the first place,” Tori tried to reason as she filled up the bowl with hot water.

“Try me.” The elder sister leaned against the counter next to the sink, clearly not planning on going anywhere. “Tell me what this ‘it’ is.”

“Well…,” Tori grabbed the sponge, “You know how Jade is–”

“ _Ooooh_ ,” Trina drawled, smirking to herself. “So this is a _Jade_ thing.”

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t interu– Wait, what do you mean ‘a Jade thing’?”

“Oh, nothing,” Trina said while picking at her nails. She shot a mischievous look at Tori, then rolled her wrist forward in a circle, gesturing for her to continue. “Go on.”

Tori stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and pumping soap onto the sponge, continuing on to wash her dish and utensil. Trina would be Trina, and she rarely made sense. There was no reason for her to be all smirk-y and smug, right? _Right?_ “Okay. So. Jade is all aggressive and _never_ lets anyone touch her, you know?”

“Mhm,” Trina agreed.

“And she doesn’t hesitate to tell people to stop, if they do.”  
  
“Oh, I know.” She shuddered at the thought of the piercing glare and deadly serious tone Jade had sent her way when she’d made the mistake of laying a hand on her arm.

“But she lets _me_ touch her. Like, hug her and grab her wrist and stuff. And she’s not just being polite and putting up with it, because that’s definitely not something she would do. So I guess I’m just wondering why.”  
  
“Wondering...why she lets you touch her?”  
  
“Yeah,” she confirmed as she rinsed the soapy suds off her dishes.

“Oh, Tori,” Trina said sympathetically. She stroked a hand down Tori’s hair in a mock-motherly fashion. “I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.”

“Well, I haven’t,” Tori frowned, putting her bowl and fork onto the dish rack to dry. “I didn’t even _realize_ it until a few days ago.”

Trina tsked, still rearranging and playing with Tori’s hair. “What are we going to do with you?”

“Would you quit that?” Tori huffed and smacked the hands away, thoroughly confused. “Why do you keep talking like you know something I don’t?”

“Because I do, apparently,” she answered mysteriously.

“Look, I don’t need to put up with this.” Tori dried her hands violently. “Are you or are you not going to tell me?”  
  
“Are you or are you not going to give me twenty dollars?” Trina countered.

Tori exhaled a hostile breath before closing her eyes to make sure she didn’t snap Trina’s neck in half. “ _Fine_.” She reached into her back pocket, pulling out a twenty she’d brought when she went out with André and Cat earlier that day and slapping it into Trina’s awaiting hand.

“Jade totally likes you.”

Tori froze. “What?”  
  
“Yeah, so now you can stop yearning over her from afar and do something about it. She likes you, you like her–”

“ _What?_ ”

“–so get on with it!”

Tori blinked. She didn’t know what to say. There was no way Jade West liked her. Absolutely no way. It was impossible. Or, in the wise words of Vizzini from _The Princess Bride_ , ‘ _Inconceivable!_ ’

“ _Jade West_ does not like me,” Tori spoke slowly, shaking her head and looking at Trina as if she was crazy. “Nuh-uh. No way.”

“Uh, _yuh-huh_. Yes way,” Trina nodded, instinctually falling back on the old childhood arguing tactic of simply repeating the opposite of Tori’s argument. “It’s _so_ obvious, Tor.”

“What?! No, it’s not! What’s obvious is she _hates_ me.” Tori genuinely couldn’t believe this. Trina had finally flown off her rocker.

“For someone who’s been pathetically pining Jade for so long, you seem awfully desperate for her to hate you.”  
  
“I– I haven’t– You don’t–” Tori sputtered, blatantly struggling for an answer.

“Don’t act like I don’t know. I’m not stupid, Tori,” Trina scolded.

 _Debatable_ , Tori thought, mentally sneering. Though, of all times for her sister to be insightful, she had to do so _now_? Tori felt totally called out. “I still don’t see how you think Jade likes me,” Tori said, giving up on protesting against her apparently unconcealed feelings.

“How am I related to someone so clueless?” Trina muttered before straightening up and focusing on said clueless person. “Well, like you said, there’s the touching thing. And the fact that she doesn’t give anyone as nearly as much attention as she gives you. And she’s been nicer lately, hasn’t she?”

“I guess,” Tori murmured, comparing Trina’s list to her own recent experiences and past memories.

“Seriously, Tori,” Trina sighed and shook her head. “Like, everyone knows you guys have a thing for each other.”

“Really?” Tori whined, slumping against the counter.

“Well, I guess not everyone.” Trina shot a pointed look at her younger sister. Tori just rolled her eyes. “Maybe not everyone _knows_ , but I think people suspect it. You know, on the rare off chance that they actually have time to think about it when their attention isn’t on _me_.” Tori sighed at that, but Trina just continued on. “I think you guys are acting like literal nine year olds with that aggravating-each-other-to-conceal-your-true-feelings thing you do, but I guess people are into that whole enemies to lovers trope. Belligerent sexual tension and all that.”

Tori squeaked at that, because, okay, _yes_ , Jade was attractive, but there was no _sexual tension!!_

“Anyway,” Trina proceeded, as if she hadn’t just fucked up Tori’s whole perspective on something she’d been so sure of for so long. “I get the shower first tonight.” She bounded away and up the stairs. A few moments later, Tori heard the water from their shared bathroom running.

What the hell was she supposed to do with all this new information? Was Jade liking her even a reasonable deduction? It seemed so, with Trina’s blatant explanation and Beck and Cat’s obscure, but suggestive answers.

Oh, Tori was so fucked.

* * *

Tori knew she was being ridiculous. Trust her, she knew. But that didn’t prevent her from acting absolutely batshit strange around Jade. She knew she really had no real reason to be reacting the way she was. Hell, she didn’t have any concrete confirmation that Jade liked her at all. Despite that, she couldn’t seem to get a word out around her crush. None. Zip. Nada. It was like her mouth was glued shut and all she could do was try not to run away because if she opened her mouth, she was sure she’d spill something and ruin whatever tentative friendship she and Jade had going on. She definitely didn’t want to do that. Jade as a maybe-kind-of-friend was better than no Jade at all.

Part of not having confirmation on what Jade felt was draining, though. Not that this week was the best to base anyone’s behavior on, with Tori freaking out whenever she was within five feet of her crush, but still, she couldn’t help but observe Jade’s behavior more closely. Sometimes it seemed like Jade was being sort of nice. Other times it felt like she still hated Tori with a burning passion. For the most part, though, she was very indifferent, like she didn’t give a single damn about Tori, content to let her exist but never interact.

It was exhausting, trying to keep up with it, trying to decide if anything happening had even the slightest shred of meaning. God, why did liking someone have to be so confusing? Or rather, why did liking _Jade_ have to be so confusing?

She should’ve known Jade would notice her odd behavior. As dismissive as she could seem, Jade was observant as hell. It was part of why she was so good at reading people, which in turn made her great at insulting and threatening. But Tori didn’t assume Jade would _care_ , so she was rather surprised when her crush came walking toward her at the end of the school day, stopping mere feet from her locker.

“Vega,” Jade greeted, tone flat.

“H-hi,” Tori said haltingly. “Um, did you need something?”  
  
“Your wrist,” she prompted and held a hand out expectantly.

“Right,” Tori breathed out, hesitantly raising her arm despite _really_ not wanting to. She wasn’t certain she’d be in control of whatever tumbled out of her mouth once Jade yanked her to who knows where (probably the janitor’s closet, let’s be real), but she didn’t really have a choice.

Jade seized her wrist, abruptly slamming Tori’s locker closed and dragging her away. And, yup, they were headed to the janitor’s closet. Did they ever go anywhere else?

Jade all but threw Tori into the small room, shutting the door immediately. When she turned around, Tori gulped at the steely, unforgiving expression on her face, stern eyebrows drawn together and down, a frown stuck on her lips. 

“What’s your deal?” she demanded.

“Huh?” Tori responded dumbly. The combination of her crush that maybe likes her back in the same small space with her and the quick change of setting was muddling her mind.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Vega,” Jade growled, taking a step forward. 

Tori squeaked in return, uncoordinatedly shuffling backwards in an attempt to keep the space between her and Jade. If they got any closer, Tori was sure she would combust. “I’m not,” she offered weakly, gripping the strap of her big purse.

“Oh, come _on_ ,” the paler girl chastised. “You can’t tell me you haven’t been acting neurotic around me all week.”

Tori swallowed, cursing that her ability to lie and cover her feelings in real life was not as developed as her ability to play a character on stage. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind, Jade,” she sighed, dropping her bag to the questionably dirty floor (which was a bit contradictory, because wasn’t the janitor responsible for cleaning the floors?) and running a hand through her hair.

“Bullshit.”

Tori’s eyes flew to Jade’s and her lips turned down in a slight scowl. The blunt statement wasn’t out of character for the commonly upfront girl, but it was still a little agitating. “Not exactly,” Tori mumbled. She wasn’t lying, per say, just omitting the details of the truth. Like how the things on her mind were actually only _one_ thing, directly related to the girl in front of her.

“Don’t get smart with me.” Jade took another threatening step forward.

“I, uh–” Tori stumbled back into crates set next to the ladder leading to the library, scrambling for purchase on the wall behind her. She immediately regretted it when the carpet-ended dolly and caution sign hung on the wall swayed precariously. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath, righting herself so she wouldn’t fall and make a mess akin to the one she’d just narrowly avoided.

When she looked back up at Jade, she could swear she saw a flash of something like concern in her eyes, but then it was swiftly covered by an arching eyebrow and judgemental gaze, leaving Tori to wonder if it had ever been there at all. “You good over there?” she quipped sarcastically.

“Ha ha,” Tori sardonically forced out, straightening and dusting off her clothes. “There, you’ve had your share of Torturing Tori Time. Can I leave now?” All she wanted to do was get out of there and forget any of this ever happened. 

“No,” Jade denied. The answer, though expected, was aggravating nonetheless. “I still want to know what’s got you all jacked up. And it has to be something related to me, because everyone else says you’ve been normal around them.”

Tori raised an eyebrow at that. It was intriguing that Jade had apparently gone out of her way and taken the time to ask their friends about her when she claimed she didn’t care about Tori in the slightest. Which, now that Tori was thinking about it, hadn’t happened in a while. The words “I don’t care” or “Who cares?” haven’t been targeted at her for some time now. Maybe Trina was right, Jade _was_ nicer nowadays. 

Well, she wasn't what Tori would call _nice_ at the moment, but she also wasn’t threatening Tori with bodily harm caused by scissors (yet), so maybe there was a little credit due.

“I have all day, Vega.” Jade settled her weight onto one leg, dropping her messenger bag on the floor like Tori had done before crossing her arms.

“I don’t know what you wanna hear, Jade.” Tori threw her hands up, exasperated, finally getting fed up with the enigma that was Jade. Jade’s eyes followed her dangerously as Tori shifted to the side, settling against the front of the ladder, leaning back and crossing her own arms.

“I thought I was being pretty clear on what I wanted before,” Jade snarked.

“Well my answer obviously wasn’t _good enough_ for you,” Tori almost snarled, surprising herself along with Jade. She hadn’t dwelled on this feeling before, but it was certainly present. The feeling that nothing she ever did was good enough for Jade. All her attempts to win Jade’s good graces were turned down no matter what, and she had been ridiculed – for what had seemed like an endless amount of time, back then – for getting a part over Jade in a play. But fuck it, everything else this week had gone topsy-turvy, hadn’t it? She couldn’t fuck up even more, could she?

“Because you’re lying!” Jade’s voice rose, her facial expression finally breaking from the stony mask she so commonly kept in place. There was something in her voice, something other than the anger or accusation that Tori was so used to recognizing, something that sounded just the tiniest amount open and vulnerable, like Jade was desperately searching for something she wasn’t sure she’d find.

“Well I can’t exactly relay my woes and struggles that come with liking you _to you_ ,” Tori scoffed, barely registering that she’d totally just fucking revealed herself and – despite her previous thoughts – _definitely_ fucked up even more than she thought possible. But it didn’t matter. She was _heated_ right now. 

What did Jade really know about her, anyway? That she was allergic to bush daisies and afraid of falling off high heights? That didn’t exactly correlate with knowing if Tori was lying. Jade didn’t know how to read her, she didn’t know her at all as a _person_ , she didn’t know Tori as anything besides a target to funnel her rage toward. Right? “And how it was fine because there was no chance of you liking me back, so I guess I didn’t really have to worry about it beyond appreciating you as a person and hoping maybe the feelings would fade after a while. But then _Trina_ , of all people, came and rocked my damn world by making me realize that maybe you like me too. And that was, I don’t know, kind of scary, I guess.” She was gesturing around wildly with her hands now, standing up straight instead of leaning back. “Because it’s new, and at least before, with the hate and anger, I’m used to that, it’s familiar, I know how to handle that. Except maybe Trina’s wrong, because, ya know, she’s Trina. Maybe I interpreted the weird shit Cat and Beck were saying completely wrong–”

“Vega–” Jade tried to interrupt, but Tori was not having it. She’d had this storm of thoughts and feelings brewing inside her for too long, anger mixing dangerously with insecurity and a hundred more contradicting emotions all over the spectrum. Tori was just _done_ with holding back and questioning herself. Jade was going to have to listen to her for once.

“–maybe you do still hate me, maybe I’m overanalyzing and overthinking, because I do that a lot to be honest. Maybe I’m reading between lines that aren’t there–”

“ _Vega._ ”

“–maybe I’m twisting this into something that isn’t the truth, but something I want it to be. And, honestly–”

“ ** _Tori._** ”

The use of her first name registered somewhere in the back of her mind, but it was deemed unimportant as a flood of other thoughts washed over. “–I don’t know if that would hurt more or not. I– I don’t–”

Suddenly, in the midst of her chaotic rambling and venting, a twisted form of an admission that really could’ve just been a simple “Hey, I like you,” Jade surged forward. She didn’t have to surge very far, considering she had apparently been standing only a few short inches away from Tori. Though the overthinker of a girl couldn’t tell you when _that_ happened, if Jade had been moving steadily closer since the start of her long winded rant or not.

But none of that mattered when Jade’s hands were cupping her face, thumbs on her cheeks and fingers splaying on her jaw and towards her ears. Jade’s lips were abruptly on hers, capturing her into a searing kiss, enveloping her and effectively cutting off any train of thought or speech she might’ve had. Tori made a small noise in her throat, her brain shutting down and relying on instinct to kiss Jade back with an equal amount of passion and fervor. Warm hands clutched Jade’s hips when pale arms slid around a tan neck, both pulling ever closer. Jade started slowly walking backwards, guiding Tori to follow her without breaking the kiss. Tori stuttered out a pleased groan when Jade turned them and pushed her against the wall that ran parallel to the one housing the ladder, next to the door and out of view of the window.

All too soon, their kisses slowed down and Jade broke away from Tori’s lips, resting her forehead against the younger girl’s as they breathed heavily. For a while, they didn’t talk, Tori’s mind racing to catch up to all that had just happened, the emotional upheaval of being annoyed, then confused, then sort of angry but also kind of scared as she poured out her emotions, then really, _really_ happy because _Jade West just kissed her_ all occurring in such a short amount of time. It was hard to break away from that last thought, though she fought the temptation to stay with that particular image, knowing they should probably talk about what the fuck just happened.

But, fuck, she was always thinking, wasn’t she? She could enjoy this moment, if only just this once.

“Has anyone told you you talk too much?”

Tori burst into an honest laugh, dropping her head to Jade’s shoulder, amused at how quickly Jade went from ‘hot girl mind-blowingly kissing her’ to ‘hot girl telling her off’. She couldn’t even be fake mad about it. The fact that _those_ were the words Jade chose to say after their first kiss was just such a _Jade_ thing to do, she couldn’t help but think it was fitting. “A few times, yes. Mostly by one particular person.”

“They must be very smart, then.”

“Eh.” The blasé remark earned her an affronted gasp and shove to her shoulder.

“I’m very smart, thank you very much,” Jade said succinctly.

“Oh, it was _you_ we were talking about?” Tori raised her head and her eyebrows. “I didn’t know.”

Jade raised her eyebrows right back. “When the hell did you get so sassy?”

“When you decided to make it your mission to sass _me_.”  
  
“You should thank me for that. Well, I guess not the parts when I actually put you in danger. But now you’re not as much of a pushover.”  
  
“Seriously?” Tori scoffed.

“Oh, shut it, Tori.”

“Make me.”  
  
“I think I’ve already proven very well that I am fully capable of doing that.”  
  
“Then why aren’t you doing it right now?”  
  
“If you wanted to kiss, Vega, you could just ask.”  
  
“This has nothing to do with that.”  
  
“You sure?”  
  
“Positive.”

“You’re so annoying.” Jade kissed her anyway, putting a stop to their notorious bantering.

“So, like, are we dating now?” Tori said, causing Jade to groan in annoyance at having to stop what she’d just initiated.

“Tell you what, how about we go on a date tomorrow night and I can ask you to be my girlfriend properly? How does that sound?”

“I’d like that,” Tori beamed, giddiness radiating from her. “I’d really, really like that.” 

After a moment, the brunette chuckled and shook her head in disbelief. “Jesus fucking christ, Jade.” She couldn’t believe this was happening. If her arms weren’t wrapped around Jade, she’d pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“You mean that in a good way, I hope,” Jade smirked back, though there was a slightest hint of worry in her tone.

“Oh, in a _very_ good way, believe me,” Tori placated, lifting her head so she could look Jade in the eye. They momentarily stole Tori’s attention, entrancing her with the swirl of grey and blue with flecks of green encircled by a dark ring that she’d never gotten to see up close before. “But maybe give me some warning next time you decide to spring a kiss on me. It was a very welcome surprise, but my heart also nearly stopped. Or maybe it was beating too fast. One of the two,” she shrugged. 

“That’s part of the thrill,” Jade teased as she tilted her head down, nuzzling Tori’s neck. “And you would’ve noticed if you weren’t being a dramatic idiot and talking too much.”  
  
Tori pleasantly sighed at the action then huffed at the gibe, a little incredulous but mostly amused. She elected to leave it alone. “So I guess you don’t hate me, huh?”

“Nah, I still do. This whole thing was an elaborate ruse. I was hoping the kiss would send your heart into cardiac arrest, and then you’d drop dead,” Jade mused, pulling away from Tori’s neck and giving her a mischievous grin.

It was entirely unfair how damn adorable Tori thought Jade’s grin was. “That totally explains why you’re cuddled up to me right now,” she mentioned airily.

“You’re unbearable.”  
  
“I’ve been told.”

“C’mon.” Jade pulled away, only to grab their bags and Tori’s hand. “I’m driving you home today.”

“Oh my god, thank you,” Tori gushed as she grabbed her bag from Jade and checked the time on her phone. “Trina probably left already, and I really don’t want to walk home.”

“I’d be a bad girlfriend if I left you stranded here, don’t you think?”  
  
Tori just grinned.

* * *

“Why do you still have that shovel back there?”  
  
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

**Author's Note:**

> whew that was a little dramatic towards the end with tori sorta blowing up, but sometimes we need that


End file.
